Thursday, December 3, 2009

Interesting post at Volohk about instant replay. The thrust of the post is that NFL officiating would be better served if the instant replay reviewer gave absolutely no deference to the on-the-field review.

I must agree, sort of. How many times have you seen an official who was completely out of position make a call and then the instant replay was denied because there was not Absolute-Incontrovertible-Beyond-A-Reasonable-Doubt-And-Even-Most-Unreasonable-Doubts Evidence to overturn the call?

On the other hand, if the official is in position to see and make the call, the real time official has many advantages over the instant replay official. Just because there are "multiple" camera angles does not mean that any single one of them necessarily has a better vantage point than the on field official. Moreover, the on field official has one other major advantage over the tape: the ability to see three dimensionally. The problem is that the on field official must make some call whether an official is in position or not. Abstention is not an option for the on the field officials but it is for the instant replay reviewer.

Ideally, the deference paid to the original call would take into account the position of the official of the official making the call.

By the way, what ever happened to the old IBM "You Make the Call" commercials? Those were awesome.